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"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Due to time constraints, please do not PM me if your question can be resolved or answered on the forum.

Need help?1) Stop changing things. No new indicators, charts, or methods. Be consistent with what is in front of you first.2) Start a journaland post to it daily with the trades you made to show your strengths and weaknesses.3) Set goals for yourself to reach daily. Make them about how you trade, not how much money you make.4) Accept responsibility for your actions. Stop looking elsewhere to explain away poor performance.5) Where to start as a trader? Watch this webinar and read this thread for hundreds of questions and answers.6) Help using the forum? Watch this video to learn general tips on using the site.

My anticipation of the gap close immediately after the open (which did eventually occur) clouded my vision of what was actually occurring: a slow grind upward.

Price certainly could have moved down to close the gap, but the real error was in my execution. My best trades are when I wait for a pullback to one of my predefined s/r levels with entry in the direction of the current trend. Yesterday (Friday) I was chasing the market on the first three trades, not wanting to miss the gap-close move. Had I waited for a pullback, I would most likely have taken one loser rather than three, and seen that the trend was not down at the moment.

The fourth trade was marginal as it was more of a chasing entry as well, but the biggest error here was not following my typical method when price touches my target. Usually I will bring my stop in tight when my target is hit but not filled – I didn't do that here.

The fifth trade was a pullback entry, but it wasn't a good trade to make because price charged up to take out the high of the day and ORH, and I'm finding that taking a pullback after this kind of action is usually not a good idea. A trading friend says the best entries are at the “edges,” and I was entering in the opposite direction of where price was most likely headed after testing/piercing that upper “edge.”

Thanks for prompting me to review Friday's trading Mike. Have a good weekend.

"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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I've found that keeping weekly stats over a period of time not only gives me a much clearer picture of my results/progress than does my memory, but also has had a profound positive-reinforcement effect by showing me that even with my current mediocre trading, I am actually profitable (albeit not consistently) on a week-to-week basis right now.

There are more things that these stats can tell me. For instance I can clearly see that, for me right now, more trades in a week does not necessarily mean more profits...

Please register on futures.io to view futures trading content such as post attachment(s), image(s), and screenshot(s).

"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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I've found that keeping weekly stats over a period of time not only gives me a much clearer picture of my results/progress than does my memory, but also has had a profound positive-reinforcement effect by showing me that even with my current mediocre trading, I am actually profitable (albeit not consistently) on a week-to-week basis right now.

There are more things that these stats can tell me. For instance I can clearly see that, for me right now, more trades in a week does not necessarily mean more profits...

Please register on futures.io to view futures trading content such as post attachment(s), image(s), and screenshot(s).

Self - realization is one of the most underestimated forces in any endeavour, a million people can tell you a million wise things. But it only makes sense when you do it yourself. Didn't Yoda say that? or Jordan?

There is no thinking, do or do not. Good luck. And hey, I just noticed you are in Dallas, am in Frisco visiting folks down here.

My anticipation of the gap close immediately after the open (which did eventually occur) clouded my vision of what was actually occurring: a slow grind upward.

OK - next question

What will you do in the future to avoid this "horrible trading".

Mike

Due to time constraints, please do not PM me if your question can be resolved or answered on the forum.

Need help?1) Stop changing things. No new indicators, charts, or methods. Be consistent with what is in front of you first.2) Start a journaland post to it daily with the trades you made to show your strengths and weaknesses.3) Set goals for yourself to reach daily. Make them about how you trade, not how much money you make.4) Accept responsibility for your actions. Stop looking elsewhere to explain away poor performance.5) Where to start as a trader? Watch this webinar and read this thread for hundreds of questions and answers.6) Help using the forum? Watch this video to learn general tips on using the site.

Self - realization is one of the most underestimated forces in any endeavour, a million people can tell you a million wise things. But it only makes sense when you do it yourself. Didn't Yoda say that? or Jordan?

There is no thinking, do or do not. Good luck. And hey, I just noticed you are in Dallas, am in Frisco visiting folks down here.

Big D is in Big D! Small world. I think Big Mike may be right around the corner from you too.

Thanks for the input, and good to hear from you. Enjoy the cool weather we're having here now!

"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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As I go through and review the screenshots I take of my charts during the day, I see:

My best trades are pullbacks in a trend. When I am able to take them at an appropriate s/r level they provide minimal MAE and are generally the quickest trades from entry to exit.

My better pullback trades are when the pullback retraces a significant portion of the previous move (e.g., 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 of the previous move) to reach a significant s/r level, rather than some of the more shallow “pullbacks” (which are technically not really pullbacks) I've been taking.

What I refer to as “breakout” (up), and “breakdown” (down) trades can be profitable, but on average they are a “sucker's bet” for me and end up costing me more than they're worth - I would do well to avoid them. Additionally, the poorer entry price causes me to reach for more distant targets in order to make a profit, and as a result put me in a position of holding for improbable exit levels.

The shallow pullbacks and breakout/breakdown trades are the result of impatience and fear of missing out on a move, nothing more. They don't hold any statistical value for me; they're just the result of not remembering that there will be better opportunities if I will wait for them.

Realizing these things, my priorites/tasks moving forward should be:

If I'm unsure of the current trend or current potential direction of the market, stay out. Guessing or “taking a shot” is costly.

While gap closes and other potential areas of attraction for the market (e.g., NPOC's, previous high/low, overnight high/low, etc.) can be useful in determining “what the market is trying to do,” I still have to trade “what the market is doing right now,” trade within my risk parameters, and know where my target/exit is for the current trade. In other words, just because there is an unfilled gap near current price, that is not a good reason to take a low probability trade (breakout/breakdown) to try not to “miss the move.” I need to wait for price to act in a way that I can recognize or stay out.

Considering my current style/method of trading, if my target level does not provide me with at least 1:1 risk/reward then it's probably not a trade I should take. This could even be a filter of sorts because it shows me that price is probably choppy at the moment anyway.

If price doesn't appear to have a particular trend for the day, then only enter at the “edges.”

Understand that I will miss moves because price didn't get to my entry level, but that's ok, there will be another one.

That's it for the moment. I will do this same kind of review at the end of next week to see what else I've learned and how I've applied what I've outlined here.

Sincere thanks to you again Mike for prompting me to take the time to look more closely at what I'm doing here. It's something that I know to do, that I have on my list of things to do, but one that I spend an embarrassingly small amount of my time on.

"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Last edited by AttitudeTrader; September 18th, 2011 at 01:56 PM.
Reason: Hit the Enter key accidentally before I was finished editing this!